And Eye for an Eye
by not magical me
Summary: I felt kind of empty. ‘So, what, Voice?’ I asked silently. ‘Did you just tell me to get life insurance?’ You missed the point, Max. The Voice scolded. Think harder. So I thought harder. And I realized.


_An Eye for an Eye_

(Author's Note: sorry for the long period of time between my actually getting this story up and my actually getting this story up. I felt so bad for you guys I started this story at around midnight, and now I am drained. Goodnight.)

* * *

I was a girl on a mission. The flock was setting up camp, and I was sent on a food foraging expedition. And since for once we actually had some money, I deserted the 'Dumpster of Doom' as Nudge has been calling it, in favor of 'real food.'

"Nudge," I had said, "Are you telling me that food that comes from a dumpster is imaginary?"

Nudge glared. "You know what I mean, Max. Bring me honest, healthy food."

And in search of 'real food' I regretfully decided that a handful of Twinkies wasn't going to appease Princess Nudge, and decided to go to a grocery store. An actual grocery store with some stupid name like "Green Foods" or something. Inside was a horror of horrors. I walk in, and then bam! The first thing I see is a pack of organic sausages. Basically hotdogs, only health food. Who ever heard of a healthy hotdog, I ask you. I look to the right, and bam! Chocolate bars with no calories. Sacrilege! But I think the worst part for me was the low-fat chocolate chip cookies. I left in disgust and went to find a gas station. Nudge was going to have to live with those stupid Twinkies. I bought them, hesitated, muttered an annoyed "be right back." to the clerk, and cussing myself out for being afraid of a girl three years younger than I am (even if she is a genetically enhanced mutant) I bought her a sad looking apple masquerading as 'produce' and a carton of chocolate milk.

I was walking to the park a few blocks away so I'd have a bit of privacy getting airborne. To this day I swear that I didn't take a wrong turn. My inborn sense of direction forbids it. But somehow I wound up in an alley. Maybe it was because I was a little distracted by the cop car with the Eraser inside. Sometimes I'm a little paranoid, but I have never been wrong about an Eraser. Anyway, I must have ducked into an alley, and in the alley there's a kid. He wasn't really a kid, exactly, he was a teenager, seventeen, maybe. Anyway, he tried to mug me. Me, the Amazing Flying Max! He probably thought I was a human, which is not astonishing, considering I looked like a human, acted like a human, and (unfortunately) smelled all too much like dirty human. That, and the fact that my existence is top secret. So shhh…don't tell anyone.

Anyway, his attack came to an exciting halt quickly enough, but not before he popped me a good one in the eye. I decided for the sake of the next girl walking home with a grocery bag on her arm to teach him a lesson, but when I was through? I felt strangely guilty leaving him laying alone on the gravel and broken glass. Not to him, exactly. He's filthy scum. He tried to attack me, and I didn't hurt him too badly. He'd probably be back robbing little old ladies in no time. But he was curled up in a ball with blood dripping from a cut I hadn't put there. He'd fallen right on a broken glass bottle. I tried to leave about three times. Finally I swore, knocked him out, and slung him around my shoulders. The kid was skinnier than a mutant bird kid, and almost as light. I dropped to the ground behind a hospital. It was only a small town, so there was nobody besides staff parked. I put my passenger down and realized with chagrin that he was starting to wake up. I snapped my wings in, but not before he got a good look.

He was shocked. He reached up and asked if I was an angel. I doubt he spoke any English, but some things don't need words. I shook my head and took him inside. He couldn't walk straight, I gave him a concussion, but I handed him over to the lady behind the desk and never saw the kid again.

Then I started walking back to my family. _This_ time, I made it to the park without incident. I went back the fast way (hint: there was no walking involved.), but even so, when I got there, the camp was set up and everyone was irritated with me for being late. By the way, Nudge was not appreciative of my going the extra mile for the apple. Nobody thought twice about my new black eye. I guess everyone assumed I'd gotten the forming bruise from the last fight we'd been in. And then I saw dark eyes on me from across the fire. Somebody wasn't buying it, and that Somebody got the whole story out of me after everyone else fell asleep. I'm not sure that he understood.

Heck, I'm not sure I understand.

I had first watch anyway, so I tried to work out why I had done what I had. I think it comes down to this. I didn't feel right to have beat him up. He got me in the eye, so I gave him a concussion. It wasn't right. At first I thought it was just that. 'That' being I overreacted, I should have just punched him and gone on my merry way. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, right? The end.

The Voice sighed. I jumped, I had thought I was alone in my own head, silly me. _Look deeper, Max._ The Voice told me. _What if you were human?_

'What?' I said, disgusted. 'What does that have to do with anything?'

_Think about it, Max._ And the Voice was gone.

So I wondered.

'What if I _was_ human? What if he had killed me? Then Fang would have totally _killed_ him, then his friend or brother or whoever would kill Fang, and Iggy would kill the friend/brother, whose own friend/brother would kill Iggy, who Nudge would avenge, whose killer's friend/brother would kill, and then Gazzy would kill him, and then _that_ guy's friend/brother would kill Gazzy, and then Angel would go on a mad rampage to kill him, but nobody could hurt her because of her mind control.'

I felt kind of empty. 'So, what, Voice?' I asked silently. 'Did you just tell me to get life insurance?' _You missed the point, Max._ The Voice scolded. _Think harder._

So I thought harder.

And I realized.

_Bingo, Max._

'That's stupid.' I argued. 'I have to be able to defend myself.'

_I'm not talking about self defense, Max. I'm talking about petty revenge._

Here it is, folks. This is what the Voice wanted me to know.

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.


End file.
